


I might get wet but it's only rain

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Anger Management, Bisexual Jason Lee Scott, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Issues, Gen, Misunderstandings, Morphin Grid (Power Rangers), Post-Power Rangers (2017), Protective Team, Soul Bond, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28543989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: They felt it all at once, like a shockwave through their very souls. In the middle of their secret underwater base, they were feeling something that wasn't coming from anyone currently present- rage. A dark, insurmountable rage.Billy recognized it first, and his brow furrowed in concentration. "Is that… Jason?"
Relationships: Billy Cranston & Kimberly Hart & Jason Lee Scott & Zack Taylor & Trini
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	I might get wet but it's only rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [INeedALife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedALife/gifts).



> HOLY CRAP THIS FIC HAS TAKEN ME A WHOLE DAMN YEAR TO WRITE! I wrote a little bit, got stumped and then every time I tried to open it just had a mild mental breakdown and it just sat there untouched for days, but huzza!! It's finally completed!! I hope you guys like it because though I'm pretty pleased with the finished product, I'm so damn sick of looking at it in my google docs haha. But, nonetheless, this is for @INeedALife, who requested something about Jason struggling with his anger over a year ago. I know this isn't quite what you wanted, and I'm not even sure you remember asking me for this, and I'm sorry I lied to you and said that it would be done early last year, but I just hope you enjoy it regardless. @INeedALife!! I'm sorry!

They felt it all at once, like a shockwave through their very souls. They were in the Pit at the time and thankfully Zordon and Alpha were watching and stopped the simulation before someone could get hurt.

Since they had become Rangers, they had gotten closer. Not just as friends or as a team, but a surprising side-effect of the Morphing Grid was their emotional connection. They felt their fellow Rangers emotions as if they were their own. Their fear, their panic, their joy, their anger. They could broadcast their emotions to each other through the Grid or block them from feeling anything at all.

But right now, in the middle of their secret underwater base, they were feeling an emotion that wasn't coming from anyone currently present- rage.

Billy recognized it first, and his brow furrowed in concentration. "Is that… Jason?"

It took a little bit longer for them to realize that Billy was right. They recognized the cadence of the emotions, the feeling of them running through their veins and their intensity tingling in their fingertips, but it was the emotion itself that was so alien.

But then they were off- running up the rocky hill and leaping from the water that marked the hidden entrance with little more than an explanation called over their shoulder.

It was raining, and the rain sounded with a gentle patter on the slick tarmac as they ran through the streets towards Jason’s house. Jason was the only one of them with any means of transport, and he was usually available to take them places, so they weren’t used to running around like this. Thankfully, out of the many things that were enhanced when they became Rangers, their speed and stamina were some of them.

Zack kept his phone out as they ran to keep an eye on any messages that they may or may not be sent as Trini lead them through the streets towards Jason’s house and Billy kept an eye on the dark stormclouds slowly encroaching overhead.

The rapid thumping of their heart was familiar, but they didn’t need the Morphing Grid to tell them that the feeling had nothing to do with running. This was _Jason’s_ heartbeat they were feeling, strong and rapid and angry. It was _Jason’s_ tears that prickled and burned and stung behind their eyes. It was _Jason’s_ repressed screams that burned and scratched and clawed at their throats. It was _Jason’s_ pain and anguish and anger- so much anger- that made their very nerves thrum with anxiety and they urged their feet to carry them faster through the wet streets of Angel Grove. 

They made good time with Trini leading them through the back streets and short-cuts, but even though it only took them ten minutes to cross from the ship to Jason’s street, it still felt like an eternity until they got close enough to begin to feel comfortable.

But then Zack’s knuckles started to prickle and sting, and Trini’s scalp started to ache and burn like she’d been pulling at her hair, and Billy’s nose blossomed in unexplained pain, and Kim’s shoulder throbbed as if she’d fallen on it, and they were running faster than they ever thought possible, not really caring if anyone saw them, and didn’t slow down until Jason’s run-down truck came into view, parked on the side of the road.

He wasn’t immediately visible, but they knew from their unwavering connection that he was close by. Kim found him around the back of the house, soaked down to the bone, his hair dripping rivulets down his face. He was staring at a hole in the brick wall, the bricks and mortar cracked and dented. His face was slack, eyes empty but wide, his mouth was contorted into a vicious grimace. 

“Jason?” Kim gingerly placed a hand on Jason’s arm, and she felt the tense bunch of muscles vibrate under her palm like crackling electricity. “Jason? What’s wrong? What happened? Are you alright?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Jason said, and despite how angry they could feel that he was, his voice was deceptively quiet. “They just… I was just so angry…”

His fellow Rangers exchanged a worried glance before Zack moved in and copied Kim’s expression on the other side. “Hey man, what happened?”

Jason blinked then as if coming back to himself for the first time and he took a deep breath, recoiling slightly from the wall directly in front of him. “I… I don’t really know what happened, or even why it happened. They left me behind as punishment and I was just… just so _angry_. I grabbed the back of dads truck and I didn’t even realize… my hands left a dent in the rear fender, and I stopped the car from moving for a second,” Trini gasped. “And then they just left me here anyway. They didn’t even stop or turn around. Nothing. They just left me.”

“Jason,” Billy said quietly now that he knew where to look. “Your hands.”

Slowly, tentatively, Jason glanced down at his hands and flexed his fingers to observe the dark bruises that bloomed on his bleeding knuckles that were already starting to scab over. Though they were already healing, the fact that any damage had been done to him at all was a little worrisome. He hid them in his jacket pocket when everyone else began to notice. 

Trini turned her gaze to the wall. “Did you do that?” She asked and though Jason didn’t immediately react or answer, he stiffened slightly. “Because you were angry?”

Shrugging, Jason rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet as his team experienced a strange sensation. It wasn’t like his anger was subsiding in the slightest, but as it started to fade, slowly but steadily, they realized that it as more like he was putting his mental walls up to block them from sharing his emotions. 

With Jason’s head bowed, Kim and Trini were able to exchange otherwise unreadable expressions without him seeing. “And…” Zack began slowly. “... are you angry now?”

Jason shrugged again, a hopeless rise and fall of his shoulders. “Don’t sound so surprised,” Jason’s words were bitter. “I’ve told you this before. I’m almost always angry- it’s an ingrained part of my biology, my structural DNA at this point. Anger management runs in the family, I guess.”

“Uh, Jason?” Billy interrupted kindly. “Where were your parents actually going, exactly?”

Waving his slowly- healing hand dismissively, Jason bit his lip before he spoke, which didn’t do much for the show of carelessness he was trying to portray. “Out of town for vacation. They both got time off and they’re planning on visiting family from out of town and enjoying the sunshine in some other state. The first family trip I haven’t gone on, actually. That I wasn’t _welcome_ to, I mean.”

“Why did they leave you behind?” Trini frowned. “That sounds great to me, but I’m sure they would have had some sort of reason, right?”

“I stayed back after last period to get some help from Mr Watson for my math homework, and I came home a little later than usual,” Jason explained with barely restrained emotion. “Dad thought that I had gotten detention for doing something stupid and left me home as punishment. He blames you guys, thinks that I should stay away. Bad influences, or whatever. He gave me shit about… well. That doesn’t matter. It was supposed to be a surprise outing, so I didn’t know to get home early. He didn’t even let me tell him what really happened. Although, I don’t know why I bothered. He doesn’t even listen to a word I have to say at the best of times.”

“How long are they supposed to be gone for?” Zack asked.

Jason took a hand out of his pocket so he could count out the number of days on his fingers. “Ten days, I think is what he said when they left, but who knows? I’m not sure what they’re going to do now that they’ve left me here. They could stay longer just to spite me, or come home early to make sure I haven’t burned the place down. You never know with them these days.”

There was an unspoken thought that passed between all Rangers in an instant- regardless of how well he could look after himself, there was no way they were laving Jason alone for ten days in this god-forsaken house filled with pain and bad memories and heartache. Not like this. 

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Kim said slowly. “You being here alone for two weeks? As angry as you are right now? No way. Not gonna happen.”

At Kim’s words, Jason’s expression turned as dark as the storm cloud still raging overhead. “What are you talking about? I’m a Ranger- I’m not afraid of being on my own, in my own house no less.”

“Exactly. And that’s the problem,” Zack interrupted before anyone else had a chance to draw breath. “Nothing good happens when a Power Ranger gets angry. Believe me. The worst thing we could do for you is to leave you alone right now.”

Despite Jason putting up his mental shields, emotion still bled through the fissures and the team felt it through their connection as a blind, white-hot rage that thrummed in their veins like poison trying to eat them from the inside, but somewhere beneath it all was a sadness so cold and deep that they felt like they were swimming in a never-ending river, and if this was the very little amount that they were feeling through the tiny cracks in Jason’s armour, what could Jason be feeling?

While they were talking, Kim had absentmindedly trailed her hand downwards with the intention of holding his hand in hers, but instead, her fingers soothed the violent red marks that had slowly become white and puffy from where he had been scratching and clawing at his skin. She pulled away just enough to grip his arm gently in her hands and turned it over, the violent- looking marks facing upwards, so the rest of the team could see. Jason didn’t react besides looking at her with a blank expression. “Jason,” she said quietly. It wasn’t quite a whisper, but it was close. “Why didn’t you tell us that it got this bad?”

When there was no response from Jason but for him to turn his steely gaze back to the ruined wall, Kim turned to the rest of the ream, still holding Jason’s arm gently in her hands. “Any suggestions, people?”

“He could stay at my place,” Billy suggested eagerly. “My mum likes him. She wouldn’t mind.”

Trini shook her head. “That’s a good idea Billy, but we should all stick together. Why don’t we all stay at the ship for a little while? Our parents don’t know each other, so we could just say that we’re sleeping at Jason’s and helping his parents out? We’ll just go to the ship instead. But they wouldn’t know that.”

“Good idea, Crazy Girl,” Zack joked, reluctantly leaving Jason’s side. “Kim, you stay with Jason. Billy, Trini, you come with me.”

“Where are you going?” Jason called out after them as they rushed around to the front of the house.

“To pack you a bag!” Zack threw over his shoulder, and then they were gone.

The front door was already unlocked and they breezed inside and up the stairs to Jason’s room in record time. It looked like a bomb had hit it, as it always did, but it was easy enough to avoid the piles of maybe-clean and dirty-ish clothes on the ground to find an overnight bag big enough to fit ten days worth of clothes and accessories. “What do we need, Billy?” Zack asked as he got his bearings.

Billy paused from where he was surveying the messy room in horror so he could think about it. “Right, uh, probably the essentials. Shirts, pants, shoes, socks, underwear, jackets, house keys, car keys, homework, laptop, phone, and chargers- does the ship have places to charge electronics? I don’t know. I have to ask Alpha- wallet, _power coin_ …”

While Billy continued speaking, Zack and Trini searched Jason’s room for the mentioned items. Zack dived into Jason’s top drawer and pulled out bundles of folded socks and underwear and dumped them into the open bag before searching the floor and cupboard for enough clothes and started shoving them into the bag without even looking at what he chose. Trini paused for a moment to glance at the webpage on display on Jason’s laptop sitting open on the bed that spoke of bisexuality and the tri-coloured flag before she shook herself out out it and grabbed both the laptop and the charger cable before leaping over the bed to pull the phone charger from the wall socket and tossed it into the growing pile.

With a frown, Billy watched them haphazardly throw random things into the bag. “I’m not sure you’re going to be able to close that.”

Grunting, Zack searched the desk for anything useful that he might have forgotten, keeping an eye out for any glint of red glass. “Can anyone find his power coin? It’s not on his desk.”

Trini threw a pair of red headphones into the bad before starting the hunt for his homework. “Check the bedside table,” she suggested as she dove under the bed.

Reluctantly, Billy turned from his position overlooking the room and began to dig through drawers in his bedside table. The first drawer was more or less filled with the usual stuff, but the second was filled with clean bandages and bandaids and gauze, while the third one was filled with used, bloody ones. When Billy went through each drawer again, he found the power coin jammed into the very back corner of the top drawer. “I’ve got it.”

Zack threw Jason’s beaten leather wallet into the growing pile. “Then let’s bounce.”

“You think we’ve got enough?” Trini asked as she took one final glance around the room.

Shrugging, Zack zipped up the bag, struggling a little bit at its apex, before he threw it over his shoulder and made his way past Billy and towards the door. “Who cares? Right now, all I want to do is get Jason as far away from this place as possible, and fast.”

All in agreement, the trio made their way outside to the front lawn, where Kim was currently trying to calm a clearly anxious Jason, who was back and forth and was holding himself as if he might fall apart. “Jason,” Kim was saying. “You’re fine. It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not alright, Kim,” Jason said. “Rule number one of being a Power Ranger- don’t tell anyone one that you’re a Power Ranger! And I just picked up my dads truck and punched a hole in a brick wall. I broke the first rule of Fight Club, Kim! I think it’s safe to say that I messed up.”

“Jay, stop being so hard on yourself,” Kim insisted. “You’re only making it worse. You got angry- so what? Everyone gets angry. It just means that you’re human.”

Jason spun to face her, a wild, panicked look in his eyes and the Rangers could feel the residual fury coursing through their bond like fire. “But I’m _always_ so ang-” he paused when he noticed the others approaching. “Ah…”

Taking charge of the opportunity, Zack tossed Jason the overnight bag, who caught it easily as Billy handed him the power coin, the faint sunlight that peaked through the dark storm clouds reflecting off the glass and painting their shoes and the grass in dazzling red light before he slipped it into his pocket. “Ready to get this show on the road?”

“I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” Jason said slowly, judging the weight of the bag in his hands. “I’d honestly much rather stay here. I don’t feel like training or dealing with Zordon’s crap today.”

“Oh well,” Zach shrugged, grabbing Jason by the elbow and marching him towards where his truck was parked. “We’re not letting you stay here any longer, especially not alone.”

Begrudgingly, Jason let the others drag him into the truck and pile in behind him chucking his bag in the boot. For a moment, Jason’s hands hovered on the steering wheel before he snapped out of it and put the car into drive. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to make Jason drive all the way to the ship in the sate he was in, but he was the only one with a car, and they were making an effort to keep a close eye on him. 

By the time they finally made it to the quarry, Jason’s hands were clenching the sterling wheel so tightly that his mostly-healed knuckles were turning white, and a wave of all-consuming anger pulsed through their link like a heartbeat with so much intensity that the only thing that the others could compare it to was the anger of Rita Replusa, and it only seemed to be getting stronger the closer they got to the canyon as if his anger got stronger at the prospect at finally letting it out by doing something productive, like taking a beating in the training simulation and dealing some out at the same time. The moment that the car came to a halt at the spot where they had been claimed by the coins so long ago, the spot that had been deemed ‘unsafe’ by the council after Rita’s previous attack with Goldar, Jason was out of the truck and leaping over rocks and the others were forced to scurry out of the car to join him.

Eventually, they made it to the cliff, the area empty around them, but as they looked down and witnessed the resulting rippling of the clear water as Jason’s body impacted against its surface and sank beneath the sudden waves, they didn’t have much time to enjoy the scenery as they dove after him and fell towards the water as fast as they could.

Jason was nowhere to be seen when they finally emerged, dripping wet and panting, and the faint sounds from the Pit of the booting of the training simulation and the familiar sounds of growling Putties followed very soon after. While Jason wasn’t there, Alpha was waiting for them, looking as concerned as a robot could, making a chittering sound, somewhat like a system rebooting. “What’s wrong with Master Jason? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like that for the entire time he’s been a Ranger.”

“It’s a long story,” Kim said. “You want some advice? Don’t bother him. Don’t talk to him. Don’t interact. We’ll still keep up with training and patrols, but we’ll do that our own way, our own pace, our own time. So just stay as far away as possible. Can you do that?”

There was a moment of pause before Alpha nodded. “I can do that, yes.”

They camped that night in the Pit, the hard ground still splattered by their long-dried blood from that week of relentless training preparing for Rita’s attack on Angel Grove, but none of them complained about it, and they fell asleep in silence, tangled in a tight heap around Jason, despite how much he tried to protest. Even Billy rested his head on Jason’s legs, and after that, Jason didn’t have the heart to move him, and so they slept. 

The first thing the next morning, long before everyone was awake, Trini woke Jason up and led him, drowsy but conscious, out of the Pit and through the many stone columns that made up their underground headquarters and dragged him, complaining and moaning, upwards through the water and out of the deep canon with the high stone walls. 

“I usually come out here at sunset,” she explained to him when they had finally made it to the destination, the end of the rough walking path that had only been tread by one set of feet before Jason, her footsteps still imprinted in the mud. “But I feel like we’re gonna have a lot to do today, so sunrise works just as well.”

Jason watched in confused silence as Trini slung her bag off her shoulder and began pulling things out of it, including her phone which she took the cord for her earphones out of, two towels and a couple of bottles of water. “Uh, Trini, not that I’m not grateful and all, but what the hell are we doing out here?”

Pushing the hair out of her face, Trini gestured vaguely around at the area, and Jason glanced around as if some form of answer would just reveal itself to him. “Meditating,” she said simply as she returned to flicking through her phone. “Now, I usually listen to heavy metal while doing this, but you don’t strike me as a Metalica or Slipknot kind of person, so we’ll go for something a little more peaceful. Normal, if you like.”

“Woah, hang on, _meditating_?” Jason protested.

Trini turned to him with a sour look. “What? Have you got a problem with that?”

“No, not at all, but uh,” Jason gestured at himself. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not exactly made for… yoga. I’m built for ploughing through huge men and throwing them to the ground. I’m a football player, not a yoga person. I don’t know if I can physically do the kinds of things you do. Zack says you stand on one leg and stuff. I can’t do that.”

“You can’t? Have you tried?” Trini challenged. 

“No,” Jason admitted. “But this kind of thing isn’t for me. What do you do it for, anyway? I’ve never actually seen you, but Zack says that he used to see you out here every night before we all met. Why do you do it?”

Sighing, Trini sat on one of the towels she had laid out, cross-legged, and Jason did the same, mirroring her on the other towel opposite. He had to adjust his position when a particularly sharp rock dug into his skin. “You know what my family is like. I’ve told you how difficult they are to be around. I cope with it as well as I can, but sometimes staying silent and dealing with whatever they come up with just isn’t enough. So I come out here, and I meditate, and I do yoga, and I listen to the music my parents don’t like me listening to.”

“What, you just sit there and take it?” Jason asked. “You don’t say anything, do anything? Tell them that it hurts you?”

Trini just shrugged, a sad look on her face. “If I do that, it’ll just make it worse. You and I both know that maybe better than anyone else here.”

He lowered his head and drew shapes in the dirt with a finger. “I suppose. But I just… I can’t just sit there and let them talk down to me and act as if I could never achieve anything without them or without football. I like to think that I’m worth more than the sports I play.”

She wanted to give him a hug, but she knew he probably wouldn’t appreciate it, and decided against it. “You are. You’re worth so much more than football or whatever. You’re our leader and our friend. You mean more to us than I think you know, Jason.”

Instead of answering, he pursed his lips and looked out to the sunrise, the sky painted pink and blue. “What did you mean when you said that we’ve got a big day ahead of us?” he changed the topic, refusing to look at her.

“I just have this feeling like we’re going to be busy,” she said. “Lots of training and patrolling and stuff. I take it that we’re not going to mediate this morning?”

“I don’t think so. Like I said, I’m not flexible enough to do yoga, and I’m too fidgety and impatient to meditate. Sorry,” he seemed remorseful enough and glanced out over the cliffs to the sunrise. “I don’t think I want to go back, though. The sunrise is nice. I think I’d like to watch it for a little bit.”

“That’s alright,” Trini smiled, getting comfortable. “I’m happy to sit here with you. You look like you would use the company.”

Later, Zack had been eager to fire Jason up and kick everyone out of the Pit so they could spar and train against each other and the large, hulking Putties. Zack laughed like he always did, recklessly swerving and dodging around the flailing limbs of the Putties, while Jason concentrated and delivered blow after startling blow against the body of the holographic creature and pulverising it into dust. 

Thankfully, Zack had the common sense not to comment on the hard look on Jason’s face, the harsh way he was throwing his fists against the side of the Putties, and even when they were sparring, one on one, he didn’t comment on how it was all he could do to evade Jason’s punches as the stone behind them shattered into tiny pieces at the impact. Grunts of exertion turned into near-shouts of rage, and Zack spent a lot more time trying to avoid Jason’s attacks than making any of his own.

It was only when they had completed their hour and a half worth of afternoon training that Jason stopped, covered in dripping sweat and panting so hard that Zack could see his chest rising and falling through his shirt. He looked bashful as he glanced around the Pit at the sections of missing stone and the mess now scattered across the ground. “Woah,” he said. “Sorry. It kind of got away from me there.”

“No worries, man,” Zack laughed and slapped Jason on the chest with the back of his hand. “We all have our off days. Your off days just so happen to be better than most of our good ones.”

Jason forced a smile, shoulders heaving and tense. “Well, you guys have just got to keep up, you know? I can’t do all the hard work around here.”

“Ah, so now that you’re the leader, you’re telling us to pull our weight?” Zack grinned. “I see how it is. Ready to go another round?”

“Another round?” Jason asked with a frown.

“Yeah dude,” Zack said like it was obvious. “You think I’m done yet? I could do this all day. Come on, let's go again. Unless you don’t think you have it in you?”

Zack was only able to dodge Jason’s next punch because all Jason’s cackling gave him away.

Billy, despite the insistence of the others, convinced Jason to leave the damp, dark confines of the ship and spend time with him in his basement, playing video games on the couch before having dinner at his place, specially prepared by Mrs Cranston.

“Jason Scott!” Candance grinned when she saw him, more than happy to see him standing on her doorstep with her son. “It’s nice to see you! Thank you for having Billy over for the week. He’s been waiting to have a sleepover for a while.”

“Uh, no worries,” Jason smiled wearily.

“We’re just coming over to play some video games because Jason hasn’t got any games and I wanted him to have a fun time,” Billy explained as he herded Jason past his mother and into the house, and before he knew it, Jason was in the basement and Billy was adjusting the pillows on the couch and setting up the PlayStation.

They didn’t speak. They just sat there, side by side on the couch, not too close but close enough, playing glitchy video games with old controllers with the joysticks smoothed down from age, skipping through the cut-scenes when they didn’t play properly, laughing and jeering whenever one of them missed a landing.

Sometimes, Billy would provide commentary about how he would play the game with his dad, and how he was a little rusty because he hadn’t played since his dad died, and Jason felt honoured in a way he couldn’t explain.

“You know, you and I are really different,” Billy broke the silence after about an hour and a half of steady playing. “I mean, in a lot of ways. Like, I enjoy my logic and I like building things and doing things that keep me thinking, you know? I like thinking. I like… I miss my dad, not as much these days, but I like to do things that we used to do together, or that remind me of him because it makes me feel closer, you know?”

“Where are you going with this?” Jason asked as he flexed out his cramping fingers.

Billy continued on without pause. “You’re relationship with your dad is a lot different than the one I had with my dad. Like, a lot. And I’m a thinker, you know? You’re a doer. You do the things that need to be done and do things that nobody else wants to just so they don’t have to suffer. But your dad doesn’t understand that. He doesn’t understand _you_ very much either. But I know you get angry, and I know that when you get angry you get upset with yourself sometimes, especially after fights with your dad and all, but I just want you to know that you mean a lot to me- to the whole team- and that we love you despite your anger, and we wouldn’t change you for the world.”

Jason’s mouth opened like a fish out of water, and he blinked hard. “Billy…”

But Billy had already turned back to the game. “Come on, your turn. We need to beat the high score.”

Jason ran quietly through the wet streets of Angel Grove, the atmosphere smelling like salt-water from the nearby docks and static from the on-coming storm, and he ran through the rain slickened streets like his life depended on it, his lungs aching and his legs pumping and his heartbeat pounding so harshly that he could feel his rapid pulse in his temples. 

Houses passed rapidly as he sprinted down the streets, dodging cars and focusing only on the sound of his feet on the wet tarmac and his own breathing in his ears and making his chest rattle. People shouted at him to get off of the road, but he didn’t pay them any mind. There weren’t enough cars to be worried about, anyway, and even if he did get hit, he wasn’t going to get in any real danger.

He wanted- no, _needed_ to be alone, just for a little bit. Spending so much time with the Rangers has been great, but he was starting to feel suffocated in the stifling confines of the ship. So, now he ran despite his aching feet and protesting lungs and relished in his moments of isolation before they inevitably came looking for him. 

There was a part of him, a deep, urgent part, that wanted to take a detour through the wet streets to his home, just to see it again, see the damage he had done first hand- the hole in the wall, the tire-tracks on the driveway, the memory of his father’s face as he declared that Jason would stay and Pearl’s expression through the back window as he buckled the rear fender and lifted the car off of its back wheels.

He thought, _one quick look wouldn’t hurt,_ as he searched for the closest connecting street that would take him home.

A shape rushed into view, blurred through the rain but unmistakable. Out of nowhere, with short hair, neon pink runners and fuchsia tee, easily keeping up with Jason at his dead sprint through the town, was Kimberly. She crossed the road to join him on the footpath, and no words were said between them, but knowledge and understanding and trust passed through their bond, and they ran in silence through the rain.

Any deviation from the straight path through Angel Grove was politely altered by Kimberly, and Jason was somewhat grateful that she had dubbed herself as his self-control and kept him from doing something or going somewhere he might regret.

Together, side by side, they ran through the rain-slick and stormy streets of the god-forsaken Angel Grove, ignoring the honking of cars and the baffled onlookers as they looped around and returned to the ship that had slowly started to become a home.

Seven days into their ten-day journey, Jason finally convinced the others of his need to return home, if only for a moment. “I’m all out of clothes,” he said. “I need a clean pair of underwear and some real food.”

So reluctantly, they escorted him through Angel Grove early one morning and the closer they got to his house, the more tension practically radiated off of him and his shoulder’s stiffened and his jaw clenched, and the other Rangers exchanged worried looks as they turned the corner onto his street.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Kim tired.

“Why not? It’s my house,” he said. “What do you want me to do, avoid it forever?”

The rest of the walk was silent, and when they finally made the long, anxious trek up to his gravel driveway, they were more than a little surprised to be met with Sam’s truck parked on the drive, the rear-fender buckled and broken and dented with fingerprints and the lights on in the house.

They stood there in stunned silence for a little while until Zack was finally the one to break it. “Uh, how long did you say they were going to be gone for, again?”

“Ten days,” Jason said wearily as he eyed the truck. “At least.”

Again, there was silence. Nobody quite knew what to do now, now that they actually had to face the reality that Jason’s parents were _actually_ home. They sent him worried glances when they didn’t think he was looking, but he just stared dumbly at the windows and the movement behind the curtains. 

“I don’t know what to do,” he finally admitted. “I’m worried that if I go in there, I might try and throw my dad through the wall if only to get him to listen to me. But I don’t know if I want to see him. I’m still so…”

 _Angry_ was the word left unsaid, but the thought passed between them anyway. “Then let's leave,” Trini said. “Let's go back to the ship. They shouldn’t be back by now- it’s not your fault if you went out to visit a friend for a couple of days when they abandoned you. Let's just go.”

“But he can’t do that. Can you, Jason?” Billy asked, almost sage-like, and Jason resolutely didn’t answer. “You have to go in. If not to speak to your dad, then to see your little sister, right? Because your dad may not understand you and doesn’t take the time to, but your mother would be worried sick about you and your little sister will be missing you after so long away. They at least deserve to see you and not worry about your whereabouts, right?”

Jason ground his teeth a little, rocking back and forth on his heel as indecision and trepidation struck him and flowed through their bond, and his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched and he was marching across he road and up the driveway before he could really think about it, and the others followed after him.

A curtain over a window rustled, and then an ear-splitting shriek echoed from within the house, making Jason pause in his tracks. There was loud voices inside, and then thumping, and then the front door was being swung open so hard it smacked against the back wall, and Pearl was sprinting barefoot across the gravel and leapt into Jason’s arms. He had no choice but to grab her before she hit the ground. “Hey, hey. Pearl, what-?”

He was cut off by his mother exiting the house, holding onto her sunhat and lifting up her dress to keep from standing on it. Sam joined her moments later, catching up to his wife and tugging her forward.

“Jason!” Beverly cried as she slammed against Jason’s side, wrapping him into a tight hug. “We were so worried!”

“About what?” Jason asked, confused. “Why are you home so early?”

“Your maths teacher called while we were there, and apologized for keeping you back so late the day we left, but told us that your score on that assignment was exceptional,” Beverly explained. “We’re so sorry we left you behind. It was a cruel thing to do. We had no right.”

Sam came up, and Jason stiffened, expression growing stormy, but Sam merely wrapped his arm around Jason’s shoulders and buried his head into his chest in a hug. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured into Jason’s hair. “I should have listened to you, but I reacted before I even gave you the chance. I’m so sorry. That won't ever be happening again. I promise.”

Jason said nothing, but his arms tightened around Pearl’s shoulders indiscernibly as all his anger left him through his toes and into the gravel, and the Rangers quietly backed off to give them all some much-needed space. It had been a long week for everybody, but Jason most of all, and they were just glad that he finally got the closure- and the hug- that he desperately needed.


End file.
